Delhi has been paying the price of being a national capital, whereas Jammu has its perk of being a small city

Air pollution across the country went up to alarmingly high levels amid Diwali celebrations on the next day and morning after. But, situation in the national capital was a lot worse than the small city like Jammu.

According to air quality monitored by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Particulate Matter, PM 2.5 in Delhi went up to 999 in the US Embassy area and 702 in Anand Vihar. In R K Puram, PM 2.5 went up to 643 which is almost ten times the safe limit of 60 micrograms per cubic metres (µg/m³) and PM 10 stood at 999 µg/m³ which is also way more than the safe limit of 100 µg/m³.

On the other hand, even though pollution levels of Jammu were higher than that of last year but, they were much less in numbers as compared to the capital. The Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) was recorded at 278 µg/m³ and Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM) at 167 µg/m³ at Narwal Monitoring Station. At MA Stadium the SPM was recorded at 275 µg/m³ and RSPM at 157 µg/m³. The standard limits for 24 hours monitoring for SPM is 200 µg/m³ and RSPM 100 µg/m³.

Fire crackers are one of the major reason, why air pollution level rises after Diwali. But, in case of Delhi fire-crackers are not the sole reason. Burning of crops, dust particles, emission of smoke from industries at the outskirts of Delhi, transit pollution, are some of the major reasons for Delhi’s pollution. It is not the case here, Jammu is less populated than Delhi which lessens the number of contributors to pollution in here as compared to the Capital. Number of vehicles, industries and transit pollution in very less in Jammu as compared to Delhi.